Muttiah Muralitharan became the youngest bowler to reach 500 Test wickets and helped dismiss Australia for its record low total against Sri Lanka with a four-wicket haul on the first day of the second cricket Test on Tuesday.
Australia was bowled out for 120, with Muralitharan and recalled paceman Nuwan Zoysa taking four wickets apiece and Chaminda Vaas chiming in with a pair.
In reply, Sri Lanka was 30/1 for one at tea after Michael Kasprowicz had Sanath Jayasuriya (1) adjudged lbw in the second over.
Marvan Atapattu was unbeaten on eight and Avishka Gunawardene was batting on 13.
The players left the field just as rain started falling over the city.
Matthew Hayden, who was dropped on 11, top-scored with 54 in Australia’s total, its lowest in almost seven years and worst against Sri Lanka since it was dismissed for 140 in the second innings here five years ago.
Muralitharan, who started his 87th test match with 496 wickets, trapped Damien Martyn (1) lbw before lunch and then had Hayden adjudged lbw. He had Jason Gillespie caught in the slips by Mahela Jawardene as Australia slumped to 100 for eight and then Michael Kasprowicz played onto his stumps to give Muralitharan his 500th wicket.
The Sri Lankan offspinner, who turns 32, next month, leaped into the air in delight and was mobbed by teammates on the pitch.
Crackers went off in the background and a sign erected behind the boundary ticked over to No. 500.
He returned 4-48 in 15 overs, including 3-29 after lunch. After taking the last catch to remove Shane Warne (18) off Vaas’ bowling, Muralitharan walked off the ground through a hastily assembled guard-of-honour.
Muralitharan was only the third bowler to reach 500 test wickets, trailing retired West Indies paceman Courtney Walsh (519 wickets in 132 tests) and Australian legspinner Shane Warne, who took 10 wickets last week to boost his total to 501 from 108 tests.
Zoysa, recalled for his first test since 2002 after Sri Lanka’s experiment with one paceman and three spinners backfired in a 197-run loss in the first test, snared two wickets in each session on Tuesday to finish with 4-54 off 16 overs.
Zoysa removed opener Justin Langer (3) in the 14th over and bowled Darren Lehmann (8) around his legs with a minute remaining before the lunch interval.
He added the wickets of Andrew Symonds (6) and Adam Gilchrist (0) in one over after the break to spark another batting collapse as Australia slipped to 84 for six. The Australians had gone to lunch at 61 for four, with skipper Ricky Ponting (10), Langer, Martyn and Lehmann in the pavilion.
The tourists crawled to 25 in the first 68 minutes of the morning before Zoysa trapped Langer lbw, not offering a shot to a leg-cutter.
Ponting got off the mark with consecutive driven boundaries off Zoysa in the next over and added 22 runs for the second wicket with Hayden before he was adjudged lbw to a Vaas ball that hit his front pad just below the knee roll.
Martyn faced six balls before Muralitharan had him plumb in front as Australia slipped to 50 for three.
The situation could have been worse for the Australians.
Hayden had a reprieve in the seventh over when Sri Lankan captain Hashan Tillakaratne dropped a regulation chance at first slip off Zoysa’s bowling.
Tillakaratne made amends when he held onto a catch to remove Symonds after juggling the sharp chance three times.
The last time Australia played at Kandy it lost seven wickets for 60 in its second innings before losing the test by six wickets.
It was Australia’s only test loss to Sri Lanka and was marred by an outfield collision between Jason Gillespie and Stephen Waugh.
Gillespie broke his right leg and Waugh needed an urgent operation on his nose. – Sapa-AP